The students will:

• experiment with and manipulate various materials
• recognize numbers
• develop small muscle and hand-eye coordination
• develop social skills
• develop oral language
• develop the skills of: sorting and classifying, ordering, patterning,
  problem solving, estimating, measuring, representing, comparing, calculating, organizing data
• explore the concepts of matter
  

Through observation and direct communication, assess whether the student:

• chooses and uses equipment appropriate to the task
• identifies a problem to be solved
• selects an appropriate strategy to solve a problem
• explains a problem and the solution reached
• uses numbers in quantitative language
• identifies/extends a pattern
• classifies and/or explains classification

Manipulative Stage
The child:

• explores, manipulates concrete materials

• discusses discoveries
• questions

• organizes concrete materials
• recognizes patterns
• estimates
• uses mathematical language

Teaching/Assessment Strategies

Materials/Resources

• include counting rhymes in regular whole-class activities
• have children match, describe,extend, translate and create patterns
  among themselves and with a variety of materials
• present an estimation jar
• encourage students to pose problems and collect information on simple graphs
• discuss simple problems with the classification
• practice common strategies for solving mathematical problems
• use numbers and quantitative language when talking about routine classroom activities and events
• look for and talk about patterns in the classroom
• describe and classify materials as part of routine activities